For

Simple, works

Against

Only really suitable for smaller laptops, fan can be a little noisy, no additional USB, leading edge too high for thick notebooks

People go to great lengths to cool their computers, leading to some magnificent designs in desktop ranges to keep things cool and working efficiently. There is less you can do for a laptop, with laptop stands being the mainstay of the offering.

The Genius NB Stand 200 then differs little from other offerings out there, with a single fan in the centre of the stand, powered by a single USB. The stand measures 280 x 220mm and is constructed from black plastic, with four rubber feet on the bottom. You can't help feeling that the stand isn't quite as slick in the design department as the Belkin cooling stand we saw last year.

The top of the stand features four foam pads to grip the bottom of your notebook and prevent slippage. Our two test notebooks were secure on the stand: we tried 15.4- and 13.3-inch models.

The smaller notebook sat nicely on top of the stand with measurements only slightly larger than the stand itself. The 15.4-inch model, although firmly seated, did seems to dwarf the stand: we'd be concerned about putting a larger notebook on it, so if you have an 18-inch desktop replacement then you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

The back of the stand features two flip-out feet that raise the angle up making a more natural typing position, in the same way that keyboards are often angled to make them more comfortable. Unfortunately the flip out feet are only plastic and don't feature any form of anti-slip cover.

However, in this elevated position, you'll find that the front of the stand sits a little higher than you might want, so if you have a thick notebook you'll be stretching to reach the keyboard which isn't the best position for typing. Even with a relatively slim MacBook, we found it a bit of a reach for the keyboard, so those with thicker notebooks might struggle to type comfortably.

We like the fact that the fan only uses a single USB for power as this is a nice tidy solution, however it would have been nice to incorporate a USB port on the device itself to replace the one it uses - if your notebook only features two USB then your stand limits your options, pushing you towards a USB hub for any extra accessories.

However the cooling aspect of the stand works and works well, and we found our test notebooks stayed cool during long periods of intensive use.

Verdict

It isn't the quietest of fans though, with a noticeable purring whilst in use. This will blend into the background of a busy office, or most likely be drowned out by your air conditioning and overall we found that the constant purr was less invasive than the stop-start cooling on our Acer notebook. The fan didn't seem to add any vibration however.

So overall the Genius NB Stand 200 worked well, cooling our notebook with no problems. But if you have a larger desktop replacement, you might find the stand isn't stable enough for your liking and the leading edge is a little too high for typing in the long term.